wherein all the reason and philosophy of atheism is confuted, and

'Chap. II. is no Underjlanding Nature. >^tcorporeal. So that thefe philofophers fall unawares in:o that very thing,which they are lb abhorrent from. For this quality or faculty of underftanding,in the matter of the univerfe, original and underiv'd from any o-ther thing, can be indeed nothing elle but an incorporeal fubflance, Epicurusfuggefted a caution againft this vulgar miftake, concerning qualities, tothis purpofe : No7i fie cogitancU funt qualitates^ q^iinft fint qti^dam per fe exi^ftentes nature feu ftihfianti a ^ fiqtitdcm id mente aj/equi nonlieet; fed folHr,r,nod9tit varii modi fefe hahcndi corporis conftderand.e funt. ;Body, as fuch, hath nothing elfe belonging to the nature of it, but whatis included in the idea of extended fubllance, divifibility, figure, fite, motionor rell, and th.e refults from the various compofitions of them, caufing differentfancies. Wherefore, as vulgar philolbphers make their firft matter(which they cannot well tell what they mean by it) becaufe it receives allqualities, to be itfclf devoid of all quality ; fo we conclude, that atoms (whichare really the firft principles of all things) have none of thofe qualities inthem, which belong to compounded bodies ; they are not abfolutely of themfelvesblack or white, hot or cold, moilt or dry, bitter or fweet, all thefethings arifing up afterwards from the various aggregations and contexturesof them, together with different motions. Which Lucretius confirms bythis reafon, agreeable to the tenour of the atomical philofophy, that if therewere any fuch real qualities in the firft principles, then in the various corruptionsof nature things would at laft be reduced to nothing :-'hnmutahlle enir/i quiddam fuperare neceffe efi,Ne res ad nihilum redigcintur fundi ttis omnes j,Proinde colore cave contingas femina rerum^Ne tibi res redeant ad nilum funditus omnes-.Wherefore he concludes, that it muft not be thought, that white things aremade out of white principles, nor black things out of black principles j.* Ne ex albis alba rearisPrincipiis efje,^ut ea qua nigrant, nigro de femine nataNeve aHum quemvis, quie funt induta, colorem,.Propterea gerere hunc crcdas, quod materialCorpora covfanili fint ejus tincla colore ;Nullus enim color efi omnino materialCorporibus, neque par rebus, neque deuique difpar.Adding, that the fame is to be refolved likewife concerning al! ether fenfibkqualities as well as colours.'Sed ne forte putes folo fpoUata coloreCorpora prima manere ; etiam fecreta teporisStmt, acfrigoris omnino, calidique vapor is' Lixret. Lib. II. vcr. 750, 75.1, 754, » Id. Lib. If. ver. 750, &c.;S5.i Id. Lib. II. ver. 841, &c.